A Brief Overview of JSON

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It’s the text format used for sharing data, and is the most popular data transmission format. JSON is used for local data while JSONP is used for remote data.

Here are a few other things to keep in mind about this data format:

JSON is language independent (it’s available in php, Python, etc)

JSON keys are wrapped in quotes

JSON keys can be any valid string

Special characters can make it difficult to access data, and you should use underscores instead of hyphens

JSON has to be parsed into JavaScript (which can be done with eval or JSON.parse – JSON.stringify does the opposite of parse)

A great alternative to XML

JSONP

Stands for JSON with padding

Used for cross domain requests

Request URL incorporates the name of a callback function according to syntax defined by the service you’re using

Response Formats

JSON object

JSON array

JSONP (function)

Browsers enforce same-origin policy

Cross-Site Script Injection (XSSI)

Protecting against XSSI – can strip out malformed code

If downloaded directly, it isn’t parsed and creates an error

Alternatives to JSON

XML

Extensible Markup Language

Was widely used before JSON became popular

We can convert JSON to XML with different services

YAML

Was created to be human readable

Another language used to interchange data on the web

Uses white space, including indents and blank lines, which increases the size of YAML but makes it easier for humans to read